With Canada and Sweden, it’s heart vs. skill

KOSICE, Slovakia — Whatever it is, Canadian hockey teams usually have it and can summon it when the time comes.

Swedish head coach Par Marts thinks he knows what it is.

“I’ve said it before that we produce hockey players and Canada produces winners. We need to learn from them how to compete, how to practice. We have done some changes in our practice but we aren’t there yet. I think Canada is No. 1 still but we’re getting closer and closer every year.”

He said it, knowing full well that Sweden’s hockey players could really use a victory against Canada’s winners on Monday at the worlds in order to claim first place in their pool and meet a lower-seeded opponent in the quarter-finals. He said it without denigrating his own skilled Swedish team, which has been good and but for a shootout loss against Norway would have the same perfect 5-0 record as Canada. He said it because he thinks he has seen it again in these Canadians.

Canadian forward Matt Duchene is one of them. He appreciates the compliment — and he concurs.

“I think we have it this year. Whatever it is that makes winning teams and teams that can win championships, we have it,” he said. “I know we’re really going to give this tournament a good run.”

He acknowledged that last year it was lost en route to a seventh-place disaster in Germany. That only serves to make him and other returnees like Jordan Eberle, John Tavares and Evander Kane more determined to restore a more natural order to the world hockey standings. Resurrecting it, as it were.

“I think it’s something we’re born with,” Duchene continued. “Growing up, you watch those world juniors, you watch the Olympics, you watch the Stanley Cup playoffs every year. You see what it takes. You don’t just see the guy that scores the goal. You see the guy that has the big penalty kill and blocks a shot with his face — things like that to win. That just gets embedded in you and it’s something that will never go away. That’s something we have that a lot of the other countries don’t have because they’re not around it.”

Duchene isn’t blind to the fact the National Hockey League has been and still is bulging with European pros who are every bit as good as the best Canadians individually. He’s a student of the game and his favourite players were Canadian Joe Sakic and Swede Peter Forsberg, so he gets it. He admires the skill sets of many different nationalities but gives Canada the leg-up when it comes to building a team because of the intangibles that provide the necessary backbone so quickly and for such a short run.

“If you can combine the different strengths of every country and what their trademarks are, you look at the Russians and their speed, Canadians have got the heart, Sweden has the hands and the playmaking ability. There are all kinds of traits from other countries you can pick up in watching different players. It’s important to always keep an open mind and pick up anything you can no matter who you’re playing.”

Or where. When he was 14, Duchene went to a two-week training camp in Norrtalje, Sweden, along with players like Magnus Paajarvi, Cody Hodgson and Oliver Ekman Larsson. He hadn’t even been through the Ontario Hockey League’s draft yet. He was still developing as a player and the influence on his game cannot be understated.

“I admire their ability so much. I went to a camp when I was a little bit younger for two weeks and learned a lot over there. Saw what they do. It’s amazing stuff. They’re very advanced in the way they approach things.”

Canada and Sweden are approaching this game, the sixth of the tournament for each country, as a serious matter. A win will secure top spot in the pool. A loss will only offer a more difficult opponent in Bratislava on Wednesday or Thursday, not a ticket home.

“I expect a tough game, I expect a lot of trash talk, I expect a lot of drive to the net, more north-south than the U.S.,” said Marts. “But I think that will fit us. The way you play, we like that when an opponent plays the way they do.”

When Canada plays the way they can, they’re in every game, every tournament, usually until the gold and silver medals are handed out. Eberle has been on both sides of that celebration, beating Sweden in 2009 and losing to the U.S. in back-to-back world junior championship finals. He’s a big-game player. This roster is full of them. Maybe that’s what it is.

“It’s pretty much do-or-die from here on out so you want to have guys step up and it’s always good to be that guy,” said Eberle. “We’re known as a country where we always find a way. I think when you go into a tournament, you’re expected to win. And the funny thing about it is when you play other teams you always get their best all the time. They get up, they’re playing Canada. We’re used to that. We have to find a way to win. Second place isn’t good enough, where for some teams it would be. We’re just accustomed to that.

“Obviously you’ve got to be proud of what we’ve done so far. We’re 7-0 if you include exhibitions but the biggest test is ahead of us.”

They have built a team fashioned out of forwards who averaged 23 goals in the NHL this year and fluctuated between 13 for Travis Zajac and 32 from Rick Nash. Out of solid defencemen like Brent Burns, Dion Phaneuf and Alex Pietrangelo. Out of young, barely proven goalies.

Out of Canadian stuff.

They threw them together for a game in Paris, played another in Prague, spent almost two weeks in Slovakia and are on the verge of making the trek to Bratislava, their end point.